No thought of revenge as Pat Fenlon enjoys derby victory

STUART BATHGATE

HIBERNIAN manager Pat Fenlon insisted last night that his team’s victory against Hearts should not be regarded as revenge for their 5-1 humiliation in the Scottish Cup final in May. Hibs beat their Edinburgh rivals 1-0 in the fourth round cup-tie at Easter Road thanks to a late strike by David Wotherspoon, ending a run of 12 games without a win against Hearts.

For the holders, it was also the first time in 33 years that they had lost to their city rivals in the knockout competition. Since 1979 Hearts had won in 1994, 2006 and 2009 before this year’s triumph, but once they went behind yesterday they never looked like claiming the equaliser that would have forced the tie into a replay.

As the Hibs fans still celebrated outside the ground, Fenlon was asked whether the result was about revenge and he replied with an emphatic negative. “No, I don’t,” he said. “I think it’s about the steps we’re trying to make and rebuilding the club back to where we should be.

“Today gives people belief. It gives the supporters belief. It gives the players massive belief.

“It’s a slow process rebuilding it. It’s a victory over Hearts, so it means a bit more for everyone, but from my end of it, it’s another step in the right direction.

“We weren’t fantastic today. But last season we would have lost that game, there’s no doubt about it. We don’t look like losing too many matches at the moment. I thought the back four today were excellent. I don’t think Hearts had loads of chances, same as ourselves.”

When looking forward to the game last week, Fenlon had reflected on that cup final, in which he was sent to the stand late in the game for an angry gesture aimed at the Hearts support. Having seen his team fail to attract big crowds for home games this season despite being near the top of the SPL, he has become especially aware of how long it could take for Hibs to persuade all their fans to return to Easter Road.

“It was special for the supporters,” he continued. “At Hampden, with a few minutes to go when the Hibs end was empty, was disappointing. It was great today to see them enjoying themselves. That’s probably more of what it was about than anything else today.

“It wasn’t a great spectacle, but we’ve won and that’s all that really matters, I suppose, is winning football matches. I’m delighted for the supporters today, particularly. It’s a good day for the Hibs fans and it’s long overdue. It was a scrappy enough game and Hearts probably shaded parts of it. There wasn’t a lot of chances at either end.

“We’ve probably played games over that three years where we’ve done well. I’m not sure, I haven’t seen them all – so you take the good fortune when it’s coming for you.”

The main concern for Fenlon after the game was the injury which forced Scotland’s top scorer Leigh Griffiths to leave the field with an ankle knock not long into the second half. The striker hobbled back on to the pitch, one leg heavily bandaged, at full-time, and it is not yet clear whether he will miss any forthcoming games.

“He went off on a stretcher and I thought he was in serious trouble,” addede Fenlon. “Then he came on at the end celebrating. He’s a bit of a Lazarus, Leigh. We’ll see how he is in the morning. He’s obviously in good form down there. He’s had a little problem with his ankle over the last three or four weeks.

“It’s a big day for him as well. He is a supporter of the club so it probably means more to him, and to the other few players who are Hibs fans, than it does to anybody. I think the big plus today is the crowd. We got maybe 7,500 when we played them in the first game, and we had more than 12,000. So that’s a big jump. The important thing now is can we entice these people back on a regular basis?”

Wotherspoon’s strike was credited to Zaliukas by some reports, but the midfielder, for whom this was a first victory over Hearts, insisted the goal belonged to him.

“I’m claiming it,” he said. “It was a shot. If you look at the replay I thought I hit it quite well. I just remember it hitting the back of the net and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“It was such a great feeling so late in the game. Unbelievable.”

Asked if he thought the win was compensation for the cup final, Wotherspoon replied in similar vein to his manager. “It’s a long way to go for that, but it’s one back on them,” he added. “I’m sure there’s many to come as well.

“The cup final [in which he did not take part] was a disappointing day for everybody involved with Hibs, and it was a case of turning the corner. It’s brilliant to get a victory and get into the next round. It’s been a long time, so hopefully we can keep it going.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.